Before we delve into the SEO trends for 2022, let me give you a quick definition of what SEO is. SEO stands for search engine optimisation. In simple terms, it involves taking little steps to improve your website which in turn will increase the visibility of your website and improve its position in search results pages.
Remember that the higher your website is listed, the more people will see it. If you are asking yourself, “how do I go about improving my SEO?”, don’t worry. I am going to go through the top SEO trends for 2022 so you can get started and be ahead of the curve.
BASIC SEO
Trends are constantly changing but one thing that will always be relevant are the core principles of SEO. It is important to continue to incorporate these before jumping on the next trend. The basics that you should continue implementing are:
- Quality content: Create unique, accurate and up to date content that includes keywords that are relevant to your audience.
- Backlinks: Concentrate on getting relevant backlinks from other websites through blogging, partnerships and content marketing.
- Web pages: Create pages that are fast loading, responsive and indexed correctly.
- On page SEO: Make sure to include meta titles, descriptions, headers and alt tags on your images so Google has a better understanding of the content on your pages.
QUALITY CONTENT
The quality of your content is a critical factor when it comes to SEO success. Google likes to rank high quality content, so it is important to provide detailed information with targeted keywords.
When assessing your content quality, you need to make sure your content fulfils the Google EAT Principle. This stand for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. To start meeting the requirements of EAT, it is a good idea to create buyer personas which allow you to understand the content your clients are interested in and value.
Secondly, conduct search intent research to map out your consumer’s journey. Finally, combine the information you have gathered to create content in your users’ preferred format, e.g. video, and link to reputable sites to back up the content you provided.
By doing this, you will prove you fulfil the EAT principle.
SEMANTIC KEYWORDS
SEO professionals used to focus solely on primary keywords. Now, we know secondary keywords are just as important as Google is trying to discover a user’s search intent. So, the more relevant information you give through primary and secondary keywords, the better your website will rank. It is important to create content that will help answer any questions your target audience may have.
Semantic search and intent optimization is becoming more important, and is definitely something to keep an eye on in 2022.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions are an amazing feature that should be on all websites. The FAQ section should be an informative experience where users can find the answers they are looking for.
You may be asking, what does FAQ have to do with SEO? Well, you can create your FAQ page on your website to answer the most asked questions, include keywords and order them by popularity. When people search for certain answers, this will help you rank higher as Google appreciates a website ifocused on giving the user all the information they need to make an informed decision about your product/service.
MOBILE
As time moves on, we can see the majority of your audience reaches your website through mobile, so it is very important to ensure your website is mobile-opitmised. Google prioritises websites that are mobile friendly, so if your website is not your SEO is going to suffer hugely.
Small changes like displaying how images and texts appear on mobile versus on desktop to improve the user’s experience will improve your SEO ranking greatly.
VIDEO
Video has become and will remain a huge part of the market going forward. There are millions of people watching video content every day, so it is important to be a part of this. If you haven’t already, consider creating a YouTube channel and incorporate the videos into your website.
Video is huge among the younger generations, so it is key to be part of this market. To improve your SEO through vido, include targeted keywords and hashtags in your video description which will help direct your content to the desired audience. It is also important to tag your video appropriately as video tags improve your search rankings.
Finally, make sure your title tag describes exactly what the video entails. if it doesn’t, a user may click on your video, see it’s not what they expected and bounce off. Google will recognise this resulting in a drop off in your search rankings.
VOICE SEARCH
As technology improves and with tools available such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google assistant, voice search has become very popular. To improve your SEO in voice search you should focus on using keywords and phrases that are long as voice searches naturally work best with longer phrases unlike when people search through text they tend to abbreviate.
